A Day In The Life Of The T-Tones ...A Vocal Group For Hire

Whether it’s a day off to do nothing, catch up on shopping, watch SpongeBob Square Pants or get ready for a night out - everyone seems to love it when Saturday arrives. For working musicians, there is another reason to look forward to the day... a chance to do what they love – and that is perform.

I am Stephen Amer and I am in a group called The T-Tones, an authentic 1950’s style Doo-Wop a capella quartet. Today we are performing at a Bar Mitzvah held in a magnificent 13th century barn called The Great Barn in Ruislip.

We offer a bespoke a capella arrangement service of songs as special requests, and on this occasion our client has requested that we perform “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles”. At the time we thought it was a little random but found out nearer to the day that the family are West Ham supporters.

Because we are a capella group we don’t use existing arrangements or work from sheet music, but instead workshop a song from the ground up seeing what strengths it has using certain harmonies or backings until we’ve honed it to become something credible, and that we are confident presenting to the client.

Richard has a home studio so we usually start arrangements by recording separate parts and seeing how well they work together. This way, when we’re finished, we have the final version as a finished article and we can give the client a copy of the song for posterity.

We are Suffolk boys born and bred but because most of our work happens in London or other cities, it’s important we have accurate and reliable information about the route and times we travel and any delays or problems we might face.

A few weeks before the booking, we usually have a group discussion about what we expect and at this point I share with the other three exactly what the booking is, what the client wants, how many people and who is going to be at the event and any other relevant details.

The life of a musician can be a very unhealthy one (unsociable hours, eating late, drinking after evening performances etc) but we can’t get away with it too often! So, we have a strict rota between the four of us for preparing some healthy food for each gig. Today it’s my turn and I’m having a go at wraps. I even get up early enough to find time for a spot of ironing and make sure I take a spare shirt.

We grew up in Lowestoft, Suffolk and now we live in various villages along the Norfolk/Suffolk border. Most of our work happens in London or other cities so we usually have a 5 or 6 hour round trip to get where we’re needed.

We’ve never been late to a gig yet and we want to keep it that way so we always make sure we leave a healthy margin for delay or problems. Today, we’re not needed until mid afternoon but we set off about 9am so we get a chance to stop for a coffee and acclimatise at the venue when we arrive without having to rush.

The others meet at mine and leave their cars there. We load up gear and performance clothes, double check we have everything we need and then do another idiot check before setting off, just in case. We are a family group and grew up closely so we view our time together as a pleasure, whether it’s rehearsing, prepping for the day, the performance itself or the journey. Today is our first Bar Mitzvah and we’re all really looking forward to it. Richard is a theology major and R.E. lecturer so we’re relying on him for tips on Bar Mitzvah etiquette – he even brought a card!

Although it can be nice just to listen to the radio and zone out, travel time can be useful for us to do warm ups and some last minute rehearsals too. We also use the time to chat about the gig, what we’re expecting and how we imagine it will go down so that we’re as prepared as we can be.

Over time we’ve become service station connoisseurs and know where to find the cleanest and most pleasant services, but also which ones sell quality or just mediocre coffee. Today’s stop does not impress Richard or me, but Bim is chuffed that he managed to get a coffee at all!

We arrive at the venue with plenty of time to spare. The Great Barn looks very impressive from the outside but from the inside it looks amazing, and has been decorated incredibly.

We check in, say hello, have a chat with the client and find our contact for the day who shows us to a place they’ve prepared for us to get changed, and chill while we are waiting.

We get up to perform our first set. The client has asked that we incorporate four of their guests into one of our numbers as a surprise to the four ladies and their other guests. They really want us to do this and we do feel it will create a genuine personal touch and make our appearance memorable for their guests, so we incorporate this into our set.

As it happens the four “volunteers” are brilliant singers, lovely ladies and great sports. We finish with a promise that we will return later on for another set.

We have a bit of down time now before we’re required again so we use the chance to find the food that was offered to us earlier. Salmon and asparagus are on the menu and although Bim and Paul don’t look impressed – it tasted fantastic.

We have a bit of time to explore the grounds, taking arty shots for personal amusement and doing some final brushing up on our closing set. Some of the professional photos used in this blog are courtesy of Dianna Bonner Photography.

We do our next performance as a “table to table” service amongst the guests. This allows us to mix and mingle a little bit and gives us the chance to present things a little more closely and personally than before, and we discover a birthday so we throw in our arrangement of that too. The set is received really well and we get asked to do a few more songs - they are a great crowd and we’re really happy that they appreciate what we’ve done.

We pack up, get changed and head off for the trip back to Suffolk. At this point we often dissect the gig and mull over various parts - what went well or could be improved on etc, because we’ve learnt that there’s not a better time to do this than the journey home since at a later point we will have forgotten. It’s not all business though - more bad jokes accompany our ride home and we even manage to stop at a service station that serves nice coffee!

We thought we’d try a funny shot so went for the pictorial maxim “three wise monkeys”. Unfortunately, Paul’s “speak no evil” just looks like he is stifling a burp!

We arrive back at Paul’s almost 12 hours later than we left and by the time we get back to mine, darkness has crept up on us. After we’ve unloaded my car and tidied everything away it’s pretty late. However, I often feel too hyped up to just go to sleep after a performance and I know a lot of musicians feel the same when they’ve had
a performance buzz.

There’s nothing on TV except rubbish so I start wondering how we might put this blog together, and it strikes me how appropriate the title “a day in the life” is because hopefully we’ve shown you a complete day in the life of our group. We’ve also included some of the preparation for the week preceding the gig so that’s shown a “behind the scenes” glimpse too into just what goes in to making a couple of sets of music.